An estimated 13.8% of residents in the San Diego-Carlsbad metro area live below the poverty line, a smaller share than both the national poverty rate of 14.7% and the state’s poverty rate of 15.3%. San Diego has the seventh lowest poverty rate of any California metro area.

A high school education can mean the difference between living above or below the poverty line. Nationwide, the 87.1% of Americans who have at least graduated high school are 1.9 times less likely to be in poverty than those who did not complete high school. In San Diego, adults who graduated from high school are 1.7 times less likely to be in poverty. An estimated 86.6% of adults in San Diego have at least a high school diploma, the ninth highest high school attainment rate in the state.

The share of metro area residents living in poverty may depend on the health of the local job market. As the national unemployment rate fell from 8.9% in 2011 to 5.3% in 2015, the number of U.S. jobs increased by 9.9 million. In San Diego, the 4.8% unemployment rate is roughly similar to the jobless rate nationwide.

Low poverty often creates the conditions for a low violent crime rate. There were 332 violent crimes per 100,000 San Diego residents in 2015, lower than the national crime rate of 373 incidents per 100,000 Americans.

Living in poverty can have adverse effects on physical and mental health. With lower wages, those living in poverty are less likely to have access to healthy food, opportunities for physical activity, and quality medical care. In San Diego, there are 255 premature deaths per 100,000 residents annually, less than the national premature death rate of 474 per 100,000 Americans.

Poverty is often concentrated along racial lines. Nationwide, 25.4% of African Americans live in poverty, compared to 10.4% of white Americans. Poverty is less divided along racial lines in San Diego, where 18.1% of African Americans and 10.0% of white residents live below the poverty line.

While poverty tends to be concentrated in certain neighborhoods and districts within a city, a metropolitan area with a low poverty rate tends to have wealthier residents overall. The typical household in the San Diego metro area earns $67,320 annually, higher than both the median household income for California of $64,500, and the median income for all U.S. households of $55,775 nationwide. San Diego has the sixth highest median household income of any California metro area.